


Rocky Road

by coolpib2334



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: AU, Fluff, Gay, Ice Cream, LGBT, M/M, NicoxWill, Rocky road - Freeform, pup - Freeform, solangelo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-03
Updated: 2017-11-03
Packaged: 2019-01-28 18:15:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12612500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coolpib2334/pseuds/coolpib2334
Summary: In the summer after I graduated high school, three things happened.1: I prepared to leave for film school2: I lost my best friend3: I met the most amazing, and interesting person in my lifeI'd never known what it was felt like to fall in love. Sure, there had been crushes here and there, but it was never anything serious or long term. My short lived crush on Percy Jackson was the first. Jason Grace, which was an even shorter crush, came next.And then, after that, nothing. No one at school had ever caught my eye. But as it turns out, you are not confined to fall for the limited people within the walls of your four year prison.No, he came after high school. He came in what I would label as quite possibly the worst time. I was preparing to leave for film school, which happened to be several states away from Nevada. I would be leaving my family, the few friends I might've had, and my beloved dog.William Galen Solace was the first person I had ever felt such a connection to. He absolutely flipped everything upside down. He was unknowingly an agent of beautiful chaos, and caused everything to change.





	1. Introduction

In the summer after I graduated high school, three things happened. 

1: I prepared to leave for film school 

2: I lost my best friend 

3: I met the most amazing, and interesting person in my life 

I'd never known what it was felt like to fall in love. Sure, there had been crushes here and there, but it was never anything serious or long term. My short lived crush on Percy Jackson was the first. Jason Grace, which was an even shorter crush, came next. 

And then, after that, nothing. No one at school had ever caught my eye. But as it turns out, you are not confined to fall for the limited people within the walls of your four year prison. 

No, he came after high school. He came in what I would label as quite possibly the worst time. I was preparing to leave for film school, which happened to be several states away from Nevada. I would be leaving my family, the few friends I might've had, and my beloved dog. 

William Galen Solace was the first person I had ever felt such a connection to. He absolutely flipped everything upside down. He was unknowingly an agent of beautiful chaos, and caused everything to change.


	2. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Mention of blood/injury

As I trudged up the steps, I heard a door slam from next door. The new neighbors must be finally moving in. The house had been for sale since January and sold in March. I had gotten a brief glance of the people moving in, but never got to formally meet them. Probably a nice couple with three kids. That was a big house to be moving into. 

I pushed the key into the lock of my own house. It was making the decision to be exceptionally picky today, so it took a few awkward jiggles and some unnecessary cursing to get the front door to successfully unlock. The door squeaked as I pushed it open. One thing I wouldn't miss about this old house was the doors. They squeaked and smelled awful and groaned whenever you touched them. 

I slammed it behind me as hard as I could. That's the other thing. It kind of sucked because you could never tell if someone was angry or if they were just trying to get the door to close the whole way. 

I set my bag down on a small bench to greet Mrs. O’Leary. She's never failed to meet me at the door when I get home. I crouched down and scratched her head. 

“Who's a good girl? You are! Do you wanna go for a walk? Yeah? Let's go!” She jumped as I stood back up to grab her leash off of the hook next to the door. Her tail wagged back and forth vigorously as I attempted to calm her a bit. I ran my hand across the top of her head as I managed to clip the metal to her collar. I took hold of the end of the leash and turned to open the door again. 

It took a couple of tries, but I managed to yank it open. After pulling it back closed, I let Mrs. O’Leary take the lead. She knew the usual route we took. To the left, down the hill, walk around the cul-de-sac a few times, then cut through the woods to get back home. 

I stuffed my free hand in a pocket with some doggy bags. The air was warm and dry, as it usually was at the beginning of Summer. It was around the end of May or early June, and the afternoon felt like it could go on for forever. God, I hoped the Summer would go by fast. The sooner I could get away from this small town the better. Mrs. O’Leary paused to sniff around a large rock in the lawn of one of the other houses. After she was done inspecting it, she continued on. 

There wouldn't be much I missed about this place. I had maybe one friend out of the rough 450 students at my high school. There was no one that really cared about me. No one except Mrs. O’Leary, that is. I'd miss her the most of all. She wasn't too old, so whenever I came back to visit I'd be able to see her. 

But otherwise, I was ready to get out of here. Film school was just a few months away. A few months and I'd be gone for good from this hellhole of haunting memories and shattered futures. 

I realized I had zoned out, and we were already cutting through the woods to get home. Had it already been twenty minutes? It was early in the evening, about six o’clock. We came out of the woods, which happened to be the backyard of the neighbors house. Hopefully they'd be alright with us cutting through after nightly walks.  
Suddenly, Mrs. O’Leary began barking. I attempted to shush her so she wouldn't disturb anyone because when she barked,, it was loud. She jumped up and down, and me being the lanky boy I am, struggled to hold on to her. 

“MRS. O’LEARY PLEASE,” I begged. She wouldn't stop. She jumped, and just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, she broke free. I was knocked back onto my ass, stuck in some wet grass. 

“MRS. O’LEARY COME BACK!” I screamed as I pushed myself back up off of the ground. I tripped again, luckily catching myself, before I started running after her. 

She went around the side of our own house and ran back through our front yard. Instead of cutting her off between our house and the neighbor’s, I ran all the way around. She was too fast for my scrawny legs, which were now burning something awful. 

And then, I saw it happening. I screamed 'no’ at the top of my lungs right as Mrs. O’Leary bounded and knocked someone over. The person smacked flat on the ground, their head hitting it.

Finally, I caught up to the scene. Mrs. O’Leary was licking the person's face and pinning them down. I doubled over once I stopped running, heaving breaths. My chest and legs burned from the chase. Death was upon me. 

“I…. I am so so…...so...I'm so…..sorry…. I'm sorry……” I sputtered between gasps and wheezes. The person who Mrs. O’Leary had knocked down was a girl who looked about my age. Maybe younger by a year or two. Her face was covered in freckles and her hair was cut right above her shoulders. It was ginger, with bright green highlights. 

She groaned as I tried to pull Mrs. O’Leary off of her. 

“Are you….okay?” I asked in a state of panic. I had finally gotten Mrs. O’Leary to sit down, but the girl wasn't looking too good. 

“Get….Will,” she muttered. Her eyes were closed and she rolled over to lay on her side. She faced away from me, and I could see bloodstains on the ground and on her hair. 

“I'm gonna go make sure my dog gets inside so she won't jump anymore, then I'll go get that guy, is that okay?” I wanted to make sure Mrs. O’Leary wouldn't harm anyone else. She usually wasn't a violent dog, so this was really out of character. 

“Mhmm…” I felt bad just leaving the girl here, but I didn't have many options. I grabbed the leash that had left a nasty burn on my hand and wrist from being yanked off, but it would heal. I tagged on it to get Mrs. O’Leary to come with me. 

I got her inside of my house, and made sure she wouldn't be let out for the rest of the night. That was enough action for the both of us today. When I walked back over to the neighbor's house, the girl was still lying on the ground. No one had seemed to notice she was out here. I jogged over to her and crouched over. 

“I'm gonna go get that Will g-” I was interrupted by a door slamming open.

“KAYLA??” A deep voice screamed. I turned around and saw a tall, blond guy running towards us with another shorter guy. Before I had a full grasp on what was happening, I was knocked to the ground and being pinned down by the shorter guy. Well, I guess that's fair, all things considered. 

“WHO ARE YOU?” He screamed. 

“I was trying to help your friend over there after my dog sorta pummeled her which, by the way, I wholeheartedly apologise for,” I replied.

“Austin, leave him alone,” the other blond guy said as he pulled the girl into his lap. Austin gave me one last nasty glare before standing up. I sat up and scooted over next to my savior. 

“Thanks. And um, I really am sorry about Mrs. O’Leary. She usually doesn't jump on people, and I lost my grip.” 

“Don't worry, Kayla's gonna be fine. I'll clean her up, wrap her head, ice it, and force some painkillers down her throat.” 

“Oh...good?” 

“Yeah. Hey Austin, help me get her up, will you? Kayla, can you hear me?” The blond asked. Kayla nodded slightly and opened her eyes. 

“My head hurts…” she grumbled. 

“I know. Can you stand up?” 

“Kinda…” 

The blond slowly took her off of his lap and hoisted her up after standing. Austin ran over and grabbed her other side. I felt guilty just kinda standing there. 

“Is there anything I can help with?” I asked. I really didn't want to just leave them. 

“You've done en-” The blond cut off Austin. 

“Actually yeah. Can you grab the door for us?” 

I nodded and ran up their steps and opened the front door. I held it open as they got Kayla inside. It was a slow process, but she was kind of drowsy. Right inside the door, there was an area to the left that I guessed was the living room. They set her down on one of the chairs. 

“Austin, go grab my first aid kit, some Advil, and a bag of ice” the blond ordered. Austin nodded and ran up the stairs that were a few feet in front of the door. 

“And you. Come sit and let me see your hand.” He said, pointing at me. 

“What? Why?” I questioned. Of course I wanted to help, but I didn't know where this was going. The logical side of my brain suddenly kicked up. I had walked in to a complete strangers’ house after one of them completely tackled me to the ground. 

“Because I'm not stupid and I know you have a pretty ugly burn,” he said. He stared at me intensely. It was a strange sort of feeling that I couldn't place. 

“Um…” I slowly stepped towards him and held out my right hand. It was around my entire wrist, the palm, and top of my hand. Skin was peeling off and oozing blood, and I didn't notice how badly it hurt until the blond pointed it out. 

Austin finally ran back in with painkillers and the first aid kit. 

“I'll be right back,” he called as he ran into the kitchen to get some ice for Kayla. Will went into the first aid kit. 

“Don't go anywhere. I'm gonna fix Kayla's head and then your hand,” the blond instructed. 

“Okay.” I watched him lift up Kayla's hair and get out as much blood as he could. He then took a gauze roll and wrapped it around her entire head. It covered the back of her head and her forehead. He taped it off as Austin ran back in with a bag of ice. The blond laid Kayla down and put the back of her head on the ice. 

“She can have the painkillers when she wakes up. Now, you sit down and hold out your hand.” I did as I was told. The medicine man seemed like he could be really intimidating. Not that he intimidated me, but I didn't want to argue. 

He didn't say anything as he held my hand up gently with one of his and used the other to run some ointment on it. I bit the inside of my cheek, seeing as it stung pretty bad. He rubbed the ointment on my wrist and flipped my hand over to rub it there too. 

“You're gonna have to keep putting stuff on this. Let it air out sometimes though. Make sure it doesn't get wet either. That'll moisten the scab, which will then fall off and be gross and mushy. And when it's healing, it'll be itchy. Do not itch it. It'll make it a whole lot worse. Maybe lightly smack it against something. LIGHTLY though. Not hard. That might help the itching a little bit. But that's a ways away. Try not to use your right hand a lot either.” He went on and on and on and before I knew it, my hand and wrist had been wrapped up in a gauze roll and an ace bandage. 

“Wow...thank you,” I said. Out of all the things I expected to happen on my first day out of highschool, this was not one of them. 

“No problem. And follow all of the advice I just gave you.” He was still staring at me. It hit me that I didn't know who he was, or anything about him at all. The man just doctored me up, and I didn't even think to ask his name. 

“So, who should I give credit to? For fixing my hand, that is.” 

“I’m Will. Solace. And, who should I give credit to? For being my patient, that is,” he replied with a cocky smile. It wasn't fair how white his teeth were. I wasn't paying attention to that stuff, I just happened to notice is all. 

“I'm Nico. Di Angelo. And thank you again, for the help. Also I'm sorry about your friend. I'll try to keep Mrs. O’Leary under control next time.”

“It's alright. Kayla's a tough girl, nothing she can't handle. She's probably just using this as an excuse to get out of unpacking anyways.”

“Oh…” 

“Well, maybe next time I can come with you. To make sure your dog is under control.” 

And he winked at me. He will never admit to it, but we both know he winked at me. He knows he did. I know he did. But Will Solace will never come clean about the time he winked at me to attempt flirting.


	3. Chapter 2

It had been about a week since the whole Mrs. O’Leary incident. My hand, however, was still in pain and throbbing. I took most of Will’s advice, although work was a little difficult. I could manage it most of the time, but sometimes I had to power through the pain to get stuff done. 

Reyna had offered to help me on several occasions, but I felt inclined to turn them all down. It wasn't like working was impossible, just a little more difficult. 

“I'm heading out now, Reyna.” I said, attempting to until my apron one handed. She sighed heavily and walked over to help me. My shift was over, and I figured it was finally time to walk Mrs. O’Leary again. 

“You seriously might want to get your hand checked out,” she replied as she untied my apron. I'll admit, it was a little embarrassing having her baby me like this. She'd tie it for me, until it for me, open doors, get me stuff… It wasn't like I was dying or had a broken bone. Reyna was honestly overreacting. 

“I really think you're overreacting about this. It's just a little scratched.” I shrugged and started to go back and grab my things. 

“That Will guy made it sound a lot worse, and you still refuse to show it to me,” she pointed out. Okay, that last part was true. She kept asking to see how bad it really was. The parts where skin had been scraped off were starting to ooze and stuff. It was kind of gross, and it's not like Reyna couldn't handle seeing it. I just don't want her worrying even more. 

“It's really not a big deal. Anyways, I'm going home to walk Mrs. O’Leary. It's been a week, and she's getting antsy.” 

“Okay…” I could tell Reyna wanted to press me more, but decided against it. I smiled, and threw my jacket on. 

“I'll be fine, Reyna. Don't worry.” I pushed open the glass door and walked out. I could see her shaking her head through the windows. I snorted a little and started to walk home. 

Once I got inside my house, Mrs. O’Leary was bounding down the stairs. 

“Hey girl,” I said, laughing lightly. I grabbed her leash, and she immediately knew what was going on. It took a few minutes for her to calm down enough for me to be able to clip her leash onto her collar. 

I opened the begrudging door, and Mrs. O’Leary was outside faster than I could process. I locked the house behind me and wrapped the leash around my wrist. She wouldn't get away from me today. We walked down the little brick steps, and stared on our way down the driveway. That is, until I heard a loud voice shouting. 

At first, my brain didn't process what the voice was saying. It only processed that someone was yelling at me. It almost scared me for a second, until I realized who it was and what they were saying. 

I looked over to see a mess of blond hair and tan skin running at me. He stopped dead in front of me and pointed accusingly at my hand. 

“I thought I told you not to use that hand,” Will said, glaring down at me. I couldn't tell if he was genuinely angry with me, or just feigning it. Either way, I didn't like it. 

“I was just going for a walk.” I was trying to justify myself, but it didn't seem to be working. He held his hand out, and I didn't know what he intended to do with it. 

“Give me the leash.” 

“What?” 

“I said give me the leash.” Will looked back down at my hand, raising his eyebrows expectantly. 

“Why?” I don't know why I sounded so disgusted. If I'm going to be honest, I liked the idea of a little company. But I couldn't just let him abandon whatever he was doing. 

“Because you can't be using your hand like this. Also, I've got nothing better to be doing really.” 

“It looks like you were doing yard work,” I pointed out. His hands were protected by gardening gloves, and his front yard looked mildly torn up. 

“Nah, just busy work. Besides, maybe if I help you out with walking your dog, you'll want to repay me.” He laughed it off as a joke, but that's probably what will end up happening anyways. 

“Fine, I guess.” I began to unwrap the leash from my hand. I sucked in a breath through my teeth. It stung a lot more taking it off than putting it on. 

“Don't hurt yourself even more, let me help.” Will rushed closer to me, lifting my hand. Well this sure felt familiar. He carefully unwrapped it, whilst being noticeably close to me. I could feel his breath as he gently held my hand up. I had wrapped the leash around it a lot more times than usual, so it was taking a bit of time. 

I looked at Will closely. Not too closely, but closely enough. His face was dotted with freckles across his nose and cheeks. Sunlight practically bounced off of his hair. 

“Done!” He exclaimed with a smile. He took the leash into his own hand and gripped it tightly. 

“Thanks..” I said quietly. 

“Oh! I almost forgot something.” He pulled out his phone to text Austin, letting him know he'd be out for a little bit. Will looked back up at me and flashed a wide smile. 

“So, where to?” He asked. I pointed down our usual route and explained where we went. 

“Gotcha!” We all started walking down the side of the road. It was silent for a minute, and I half expected it to last longer. I had absolutely no idea what to talk about, but it's a good thing that Will did. 

“So, how old are you?” He asked. I guess we never really clarified that part. 

“I'm 18. Just recently graduated,” I answered quickly and awkwardly. I'm not sure why I was so nervous to socialize with him. I mean, I was usually nervous to socialize with people, but this felt different for some reason. 

“Ah, I see. I'm 19. I actually moved here with Kayla, Austin, my mom, and my step-dad. They're my step siblings. Also, Austin doesn't hate you. He kind of acts intimidating, but trust me, he's actually pretty great once you get to know him.” I listened to Will talk as we walked. I noticed he used a lot of gesticulation when he spoke. It was kind of interesting to watch, actually. Even though he had a leash (which, was attached to an incredibly large and heavy dog) on his wrist, he managed to move his arms all over the place as he talked about his mom, his step siblings, his dad, and his cat. I learned that his step-dad was named Apollo, and was a local medical hero back home. He also played a good amount of music. 

“My mom is named Naomi, and she’s really the best. She bakes these chocolate chip cookies sometimes that are the literal embodiment of Heaven. Except, I don’t really know that much about Heaven. We’re not really religious either.” He took a quick pause. “Sorry if that’s offensive, I tend to talk a lot. You’re not offended, are you?” I realized that I had been staring at him the entire time he had been talking. I’m really honestly surprised that I didn’t trip over anything. I managed to snap out of my little daydream and shook my head. 

“My parents kind of stopped believing in anything after...awhile.” I cleared my throat, realizing I couldn’t exactly release my inner demons on this almost-stranger. 

“Ah, I see. Well, that’s okay. I don’t really care for religion. But anyways, I’m going to University of Nevada, and living at home since it’s pretty close. I guess it’s probably obvious, but I’m aiming to be a general surgeon.” Will’s voice was soft and smooth. It almost reminded me of those smooth sand videos you see in your Instagram Explore. And then when he took a moment to pause or cough, it was like the knife cutting through the smoothness. It really was interesting, His voice wasn’t incredibly deep, but it was definitely down there. I noticed that his lips were incredibly chapped, probably because he ended up licking them so much in between his sentences. 

“Hey, uh, Nico? You still with me?” 

“What?”

“You were staring, and didn’t answer my question.”

“Sorry, I zoned out…” I muttered. Had I really zoned out that badly? God, he probably thought I was some sort of creep now. But why did it matter? It’s not like he’s that relevant to my life. 

“Yeah, I caught that.” The corners of Will’s lips turned up, and I swear I saw a literal spark in his eyes. He looked like he wanted to make fun of me, but decided against it. 

“So, what did you ask?” I asked. I couldn’t believe this. 

“I said I know I’m probably talking a lot. Sorry about that. I’ve been told it’s like, an automatic thing? I can’t remember the exact word they used. Tell me about you, though.” His smirk turned into a genuine smile, and look of real interest. I shrugged. What was there for me to say?

“Uh, I’m moving at the end of the summer to go to a film school in LA. I turned 18 at the end of January. I don’t really know what else there is to say.” 

“Oh, that sounds pretty interesting. I kinda wanna hear more. Wanna come inside for some coffee or something?” I guess zoning out on this walk was a recurring theme. Listening to him talk was so enrapturing that I hadn’t realized that the walk was already over. I thought about the idea. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, and I could actually make a real friend before I leave.

Oh, right. I was leaving at the end of the summer. Part of the reason I wasn’t worried about leaving was literally because I had nothing and nobody to lose. But, if I got attached, would I be sad to leave? It was nagging at me, but I didn’t let it stop me. 

“Sure, why not?” I shrugged, following him and Mrs. O’Leary into his house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's kinda been awhile? I've been excessively blocked since the first chapter, but I'm on Christmas Break now, so I finally got to finish! Updates might be really hecking slow, but I swear on he River Styx I will finish this fic eventually. Thank you so much if you're reading this, and feel free to comment your thoughts and opinions, because I love feedback. Byee, see you next chapter :)


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